1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to the field of storage devices for data processing systems, and more specifically to a system and method for visually indicating the usage of a magnetic tape cartridge.
2. Description of Related Art
Magnetic tape cartridges that include magnetic tapes have been frequently used as storage devices for data processing systems. The reliability of magnetic tapes typically decreases as the tapes are used. Simply winding and rewinding a tape causes wear on the tape and reduces its reliability, as does repeated reading from and writing to the tape. At some point, data written to an old tape will no longer be able to be retrieved.
Currently, system administrators attempt to manually track the usage, and thus age of a tape, or must implement a fairly complex system of tracking the usage. Very large arrays of tape drives are often implemented in today""s data processing systems. It becomes very difficult to track the usage of these large numbers of tape cartridges.
One known complex system for tracking the wear of a tape is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,285,518 B1, issued to Zweighaft. This system is a media wear monitoring system that uses predefined locations inserted onto the tape media itself. In this system, the tape itself has been altered. The system logs information about the number of times these locations are passed.
Another known system. U.S. Pat. No. 4,575,778, issued to Vogelgesang, describes a tape cassette that includes a run counter disc. A tape reel includes spaced protrusions that extend outward from the outer flange of the reel. These protrusions are used to track the winding of the tape.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,797,753 describes a monitor for visually indicating wear. Wear is determined by analyzing a special signal that has been recorded on the tape.
Therefore, a need exists for a system and method for visually indicating the usage of a magnetic tape cartridge.
A system and method are disclosed for visually indicating a usage of a magnetic tape that is included in a magnetic tape cartridge. The apparatus includes a take-up spindle for receiving magnetic tape when the magnetic tape is moving in a forward motion. The apparatus also includes a meter assembly having a meter coupled to the take-up spindle. In a first embodiment, the meter is incremented only in response to each full rewind of the magnetic tape. In a second embodiment, the meter is incremented in an amount that is directly proportional to the amount of each rewind of the tape.
The above as well as additional objectives, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the following detailed written description.